PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare says the city’s firefighters are sabotaging a cost-savings plan by claiming on-the-job injuries and calling in sick.
The Providence Journal reports that the number of firefighters filing injury claims has increased since Aug. 2, around the time Mayor Jorge Elorza tried to reorganize firefighters’ schedules to limit overtime expenses.
He says the timing is “highly suspicious” and suspects that firefighters are intentionally creating overtime.
He says injury claims were usually below 20 firefighters per week for most of 2014 and 2015, but have shot into the 40s in the past few months.
The president of the firefighters union, Paul Doughty, says there hasn’t been a single instance when the city’s independent doctor has invalidated an injury claim.
